It is possible to prepare a polymeric material in which the oriented structure of liquid crystal molecules is fixed, by first orienting, in the liquid crystal state, a liquid crystal compound having a polymerizable functional group (hereafter, may also be referred to as a “polymerizable liquid crystal compound”) or a liquid crystal composition containing at least one kind of the polymerizable liquid crystal composition (hereafter, may also be referred to as a “polymerizable liquid crystal composition”), and then irradiating the liquid crystal compound or the liquid crystal composition with an active energy ray such as ultraviolet light. The polymeric material thus obtained has anisotropies in physical properties such as a refractive index, a dielectric constant, magnetic susceptibility, an elastic modulus, a coefficient of thermal expansion and others, and thus may be used as an optical anisotropic material such as a retardation plate, a polarizing plate, a polarizing prism, a brightness improvement film, a low-pass filter, various light filters, a coating material for an optical fiber, and the like. With regard to the optical anisotropic material (polymer) obtained by polymerization, there are other important characteristics than anisotropies, including the rate of polymerization, transparency of the polymer, mechanical strength, coating properties, solubility, degree of crystallinity, shrinkage properties, permeability, hygroscopic degree, melting point, glass transition temperature, clearing point, chemical resistance, thermal resistance, and the like.
As the polymerizable liquid crystal compound, there has been proposed a polymerizable compound having a (meth)acryl group. Since the polymerizable liquid crystal compound whose polymerizable functional group is a (meth)acryl group has high polymerization reactivity and the obtained polymer shows high transparency, intensive investigations are conducted on application thereof as an optical anisotropic material (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 to 10).
In contrast, the present inventors have developed a polymerizable liquid crystal compound which provides an optical anisotropic material (polymer) which is excellent in the aforementioned characteristics and filed for the patent (Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-315699). The compound has excellent characteristics as a polymerizable liquid crystal material, and thus an intermediate which serves as a raw material is required.
Furthermore, a compound having a reactive functional group in addition to the polymerizable functional group is in demand as a monomer or an intermediate for various functional materials, because such compound is easy to react with various functional compounds.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H11-116534
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-130729
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-513360
Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent No. 3228348
Patent Document 5: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-015473
Patent Document 6: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-206579
Patent Document 7: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-265421
Patent Document 8: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-308831
Patent Document 9: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-308832
Patent Document 10: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-263789